I fasted yesterday and.. obviously, at a point.. I got hungry.. So there I was.. hungry and bored. The combination that can only lead to failure.. I’ll give you one hint, when you want to fast, chose the busies day possible. There’s nothing worse than thinking about food all day long.

When you think about hunger you have to keep in mind two things (hormones): leptin and ghrelin. Long story short, when you eat, adipocytes trigger the release of leptin into the body, as the level increases, there will be a reduction in the motivation to eat. After a couple of hours, leptin levels will drop and this will cause the release of ghrelin, which brings back the feeling of hunger.

Now that we settled this.. what about the hunger pangs? It goes like this: they are actually contractions that take place in the stomach. Usually they begin after 12 to 24 hours after your last meal. You will have the pangs for 30-45 minutes, after that, though, you’re clear for 30-150 minutes.. and so on..

Since we are on a Paleo Diet blog.. it’s normal to make a connection, here it is. Personally, I don’t think we were meant to have a constant supply of food at our hand 24/7 – think about Grok, he didn’t haunt every day – as we have now. Being hungry is somehow to key to weight-loss. Honestly, I was never good at 6 meals per day, having food in your system all day will actually keep you from burning fat(not weight).

Your body has to use the stored energy source, meaning : bodyfat. He does this best:

1. after an workout

2. through fasting

What’s your pick?

Guys.. the only good advice I can give you is this: Accept it! That’s just the way it is. You want to lose weight? expect being hungry from time to time, you’ll get used to it. Personally, I much rather have an emptiness feeling than the “filled” one. Forget what you have been led to believe.. hunger is natural!

I guess all this blog can be summarized in these few words: Eat Less. Move More. That`s it! Seriously.. you want to know the big secret behind diets and exercise, well.. you have just read it .. it’s stupidly simple..

Want to loose weight? Fine. Eat less. Less than what you’re eating at the present moment. Don’t start counting calories and whatnot, just look at you’re plate. Eat 2/3 of what you have there, leave something for the next meal, or I don’t know.. don’t have the next meal, just do some fasting.

Know your food . REAL FOOD.. As long as you know what you’re feeding your body with and you’re not eating too much of it, you’ll be ok.

Want some cheesecake? Grate! Have some. Just don’t exaggerate,smell it, chew it properly, enjoy it, have one bite and put the fork down, wait a little.. and think about it. Do you really want one more? it will have the same taste you know… simply.. enjoy eating less.

As for the move more part.. well.. it’s self explanatory. Honestly. I don’t care too much for the weight-lifting fashion. You know what?! Just MOVE: walk, run, play, hike, dance, swim… anything… never stop moving. What do I have to say to convince you? Benefits? Well.. if : keeps your metabolism through the roof, you in shape, you in a great spirit and sense of well-being, your muscles toned, isn’t good enough.. I don’t know what is.

What can I say. This is probably the best (health-wise) alcoholic drink that you can consume. There are numerous studies regarding wine, both pro and contra. On the one hand it reduces signs of aging, better immunity, and it is rich in resveratrol, a vital antioxidant. On the other hand, though, drinking alcohol decreases brain size.

That’s all there is to it. It’s better than beer, but it’s worse than a normal cup of tea. It has some benefits, but you can’t really point them out: “I’m drinking wine to get some antioxidants”, not even a four-year-old will believe you. Eat some real food, there’s your antioxidants.

Here’s a tip: I don’t know if you are aware of the term spritz, it’s basically wine with sparkling water. It’s about half water, half wine; or 1/3 water and 2/3 wine. See how you like it best. It’s a good trick if you want to give the illusion that you drink more.

Grok never drank wine, if anything, he ate grapes (which I advise you to do). All in all, wine is probably the best choice when it comes to alcohol. The key word here is moderation. Keep repeating it every time you want to drink alcohol.

Psst… Next week I’ll go at the country side to pick some grapes and make some wine. Tell no one.

Dairy has always been a big thing in dieting. Is it good, is it bad? Low fat or low carb. What about the calcium and the lactose intolerance? I’m going to try and answer all of these questions, but.. like most things in life.. there is no straight answer.

Lactose = milk sugar – carbohydrate.

75% of adult humans are lactose intolerant. Introducing lactase, this is the enzyme needed to digest lactose. This enzyme, reaches its highest level in the small intestine after birth and then begins a slow decline unless milk is consumed regularly. I guess Mother Nature knew her business. As a general rule, the longer a cheese is aged, the less lactase it will have.

Let’s talk about the fermentation process. When raw milk is left standing for a while, it turns “sour”. This is the result of fermentation, where lactic acid bacteria ferment the lactose inside the milk into lactic acid. So, the bacteria will partly/fully digest the lactose (think about lactose intolerance), it will also partially digest casein (protein in milk, difficult to digest for some people). And last but not least, the lower PH of fermented milk makes its minerals more bioavailable. It reintroduces lactic-acid bacteria, along with their digestive enzymes, and all in all contributes to intestinal health.

These being said… When it comes to the paleo diet technically you shouldn’t eat dairy.. Animal milk is first known to have been used as human food at the beginning of animal domestication and as far as I know.. Grok didn’t raise cows next to his cave.

Now..If you really really really want to have it :), pick the one that is full fat, raw, organic, from a grass-fed cow/sheep etc, fermented, aged.

Don’t think about it too much, just keep in the the back of your head. Grok didn’t eat dairy, this means it’s not essential, you can live without it. No one will cut your throat if you eat it, just enjoy it sparingly and not for their protein content.

Loren Cordain in The Paleo Diet has an entire chapter dedicated to low carb.. to be more precise.. Why Paleo isn’t just another Low-Carb Diet. After so many years of low-carb, I was a bit angry at first, since he considers it to be just a faze and it is all part of this diet craze.

These would be, after Cordain, the main difference between the two diets:

Modern low-carbohydrate weight-loss diets are really high-fat diets that contain moderate levels of protein. They don’t have the high levels of protein that our ancestors ate – the levels found in the Paleo Diet. Actually, compared with what our ancestors ate, the carbohydrate content of these modern weight-loss diets is far too low. Even worse, almost all of these low-carbohydrate diets permit unlimited consumption of fatty, salty meats (such as bacon, sausage, fatty ribs, and lamb chops) and dairy products(cheeses, cream and butter) while restricting the consumption of frutis and vegetables. Cancer fighting fruits and vegetables! This dietary pattern is drastically different from that of our ancestors.

The way I see it, low carb has done wonders for me, and it continues to do so. The fat intake depends on each one following this diet. I have seen low-carbers with a pretty low fat intake and they were fine also. The protein intake is the same thing, you just try and see what works best for you (keep in mind we’re not talking about the keto diet)

Indeed.. it’s a different thing. Low-carb is more permisive, you are “allowed” to eat a bigger variety of foods and not everyone will choose the healthier ones. Paleo on the other hand holds that as natural as possible ideea, which brings an advantage, you can’t eat paleo and chew gum, even if it has no sugar.

The biggest difference is the fruit and cheese issue. I’ll eat a little amount of cheese from time to time. For example, if a sauce requires 1cup of sour cream, I won’t hesitate on using it. Here’s a tip though, consume mostly the fermented dairy: feta, cheddar cheese, parmesan etc.

If you want to lose weight this is the first advice you’ll receive, after that is no fat, high fiber cereals and yadda yadda yadda. But this is sexism as Brad Pilon would say. This pattern, of eating every 3 hours was invented by professional bodybuilders, who had to eat a lot (back then supplements weren’t as common as they are today), so they ate more often.

Just imagine how little a woman (who wants to lose weight) would have to eat at a meal. Considering she would eat 1200-1400kcal/day, meaning about 200-300kcal a meal – a banana and an apple, a handful of almonds?? It doesn’t make sense! Still, there are women out there holding on to their diet, struggling every day trying not to fall out of the wagon. But you know what.. they will.. at a point.. they will..

It will slow down your metabolism, you’re gonna feel miserable, therefore you’ll binge and eventually you’ll get fat, right? At least that’s what they say.

Not really..

There are A LOT of studies backing up fasting. Just to name one and you can follow this road, searching for other studies related to IF(intermittent fasting) or CR (calorie restriction)… Also a number of people that are promoting it: Mike O’Donnell,Brad Pilon, Martin Berkhan(LeanGains), Mark Sisson and I’m just getting started.

You can read about the benefits of intermittent fasting anywhere. The way I see it’s a lifestyle, it will help you improve your health, reduce your cravings, and of course the biochemical ones: increases the release of GH (growth hormone), optimizes the glucose energy metabolism …… => A happier, healthier, stronger, YOU.

To end this post properly.

Paleo Diet = Intermittent Fasting

How, you ask?

Simple. Can you imagine Grok eating every 3 hours? When he had to run to catch his prey because, God knew when, he was going to eat next.. Think about it..

Connected to this post, next, I’ll post about my experience with fasting and how it helped me so far.

I’ll try to do my best and post everyday about what I ate that day and what exercises I did. As you already figured out, I will follow a primal diet, I started it 3 months ago, but not 100% clean.

I know this is not the best way to go, when I’m in.. I’m really in. It’s all or nothing, I guess it’s not the best way of handling things, but this really works for me. Everything is planned out and prepared, the meals, the exercises. I will make primal recipes and share them with you.. it’s gonna be fun 😛

Regarding the exercises, it gets a little tricky. Technically since I’m following the Primal Diet, I should be doing the Primal Exercises.. the classics.. I will try to make as many bodyweight exercises as I can, but I can’t go further – living in a match box (aka apartment), in a big city doesn’t come with many opportunities when it comes to wildly training. I will have to think about some goals though..

My theory goes like this: As long as you always keep moving, you’re good.

The diet..well.. meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, nuts (not a big fan of fruits) This is what you’re going to see in my future posts. I will focus more on the lean protein and unsaturated fats, omega 3’s, such and such (less animal fat). It’s not that I’m against fat (Hell no!) but, i just started reading Loren Cordain – The Paleo Diet and in the first chapter he describes why the paleo diet it’s not just a low carb diet, but I will talk about this in other entries.

I just returned from my home town back to The Big City – I hate it, but love it at the same time.

I was on stand-by for one week, reading and sleeping all day long. Just imagine: waking up in the morning, going into the garden filled with vegetables and just take a deep breath. It feels like you just died and gone straight to Heaven.. If there is such thing as a perfect day… how about a.. perfect week 😉

I took some pictures with my parents garden. Keep in mind that these were sprayed only with water.

Have a look:

Organic Tomatoes

I’m not a very big fan of the word organic. What does it mean exactly? I have read Michael Pollan – The Omnivore’s Dilemma where he actually tries to give a meaning to this word. Let’s take an example: organic salami – called organic because it has (among other things) organic pork meat – called organic because the pork was fed with organic corn – called organic because it was sprayed with organic fertilizer… Get my point?

Organic Cucumbers

The bad part is that people don’t know this. They think that just because that chicken has a big ORGANIC stamp on top of it, it means that they brought it from the country side, living happily at a farm, eating only worms and whatever. Guess what. It’s not! Michael Pollan gives a lot of great examples with chickens, cows, porks etc.

Organic Carrot

Don’t get me wrong. I love eating “organic” – where I come from, we call it natural, but let’s face it, organic products sounds much better than natural products.

But sorry folks, this is what I call Real Food. The one that is picked by myself, from my garden. These is the real thing, I have never seen uglier tomatoes in my life, but at the same time they are the juiciest, full of flavor. And you know what, they have a real taste, a real tomato taste, not like those cardboard things that you buy in the winter.

All in all.. this is it, my garden. Perfect just the way it is. I don’t think it can get more primal than this 😀